Two PCA Presbyteries Request Missouri Presbytery to Investigate Greg Johnson, Questioning His ‘Side B’ Views
Southeast Alabama and Westminster Presbyteries have requested that Missouri Presbytery investigate the views of Greg Johnson on homosexuality, alleging they are Side B and contradict the PCA’s Confessional Standards.
“This Report is made because a majority of the members of Westminster Presbytery and many members of her churches are aggrieved by the public reports about the Christian character of Teaching Elder Greg Johnson, and we have a desire to pursue the peace, unity, and purity of the Presbyterian Church in America, for the sake... Continue Reading
Leadership in the Valley of Vision
We need a proper vision of who God is.
Without a proper vision of who God is, we cannot cast God’s vision to God’s people. Gospel-centered leadership begins with an understanding of what is true. This prayer serves as a reminder that, ultimately, success is found in beholding God and the valley is where God is seen most clearly. As I lead each day,... Continue Reading
Don’t Perish on Your Platform
When we use Jesus to make much of ourselves we start wading into very dangerous waters.
When we use what is meant to glorify God to glorify ourselves we are stealing what doesn’t belong to us. When we pile up the praises of men and build a platform where we’re the ones being exalted then we look a lot like the Pharisees. When we use Jesus to build our own kingdoms... Continue Reading
Ordinary Faithfulness in the Smallest Tasks
Striving for excellence in the small, mundane tasks that God has given today often seems boring and unsatisfying.
Many, it seems, in the church today struggle to believe that God has called them to a life that seems so mundane. Whether it be an ordinary pastor called to an average church, a salesperson just trying to get their quarterly numbers up, or a stay-at-home mom who can’t understand why she got a master’s... Continue Reading
Dangerous Descent
How Darwinian thought seeped into every cultural crevice, and what we can do to counter it today.
Darwin’s theory wasn’t just about change over time—it was that we’re part of an accidental process. So Darwin has been the greatest gift to people who would like to deny that God exists. But it’s gone way beyond that: We’ve seen Darwinism used to devalue human life, because Darwin thought humans are basically animals. ... Continue Reading
Reason and Faith
Christian theologians used to define reason differently, not considering it to be the ultimate and independent authority.
For Christians, God’s revelation is the supreme authority by which all notions must be judged. This does not mean Christians rejected reason prior to the Enlightenment; rather, Christians acknowledged reason as a God-give tool that allows people, by employing various laws of logic, to judge whether or not a notion corresponds to reality, that is,... Continue Reading
Augustine and Christian Joy
The joy of the Lord was his strength (Neh 8:10).
When a friend asked him why he even bothered with the polemical disputes, he answered: “First and foremost because no subject gives me greater pleasure. For what ought to be more attractive to us sick men, than grace, grace by which we are healed; for us lazy men, than grace, grace by which we are... Continue Reading
Reactive Theology and the Importance of Thinking Biblically
Whilst we might all recognise this reactive tendency in the more extreme cases, I wonder whether we recognise it in ourselves so easily?
The goal of woke culture is not to hold views that one necessarily holds. The goal is to ensure that you hold all the appropriate views and are evidently woke as a result. And so people wait to react rather than think through issues and come to a conclusion. One’s personal views are immaterial, what... Continue Reading
Christ the Victim
If you have ever felt removed from God, you must realize that God knows what that is like.
When Jesus cried “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” the reality behind this cry staggers the imagination. God was forsaken by God. What we formerly knew of the Father in infinite holiness turning his back on his Son who had become sin for us remains true. But now we see God’s action... Continue Reading
The Secret to Seeing Sin
The most natural way to expose sin is by knowing God.
Isaiah was never more aware of his sin and sinfulness than when he found himself in the presence of the Holy God. He was impacted negatively not only by the presence of His sin but also by its pollution. Even his righteousness he would have seen as a menstrual cloth. I used to say... Continue Reading
Should Churches Have Christian Schools? A Test Case Regarding Church and Society
The church has interest in school and law firms, and should therefore equip its people to govern them.
For centuries, Europe’s Roman Church attempted to exercise substantial control over the state and the state returned the favor. Sovereigns wanted everyone in their realm to adopt their religion and to belong to state churches that they controlled. English and Scottish Presbyterians attempted to correct that. The Westminster Confession of Faith specified that God ordained... Continue Reading
Tried with Fire: A City That Hath Foundations
Suffering teaches us by practice that even the good things of this world are very transient.
Life itself is a vapor. Each good thing that we own comes to own a part of us, for with possession comes the stewardship of maintenance and right use. Hence the maxim, bon pa dire—good don’t last. The better we learn this lesson, the greater will be our legitimate detachment from earthly things. On the other... Continue Reading
Fighting Church Cynicism
We can choose to become cynics, or we can remind ourselves of God’s grace and enter into deeper community.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer warns what can happen when roe respond wrongly to hurt. “The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own laws, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly.... Continue Reading
Is It Vain to Serve God?
Walk by faith and not by sight, and never buy in to the lie that it is vain to serve God.
It may not always be obvious now, but on the day of the Lord the distinction between the righteous and the wicked will be abundantly clear. On that day, “all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it... Continue Reading
Another Ordinary Red Brick Church
He has promised that he will use the ordinary means of grace to call his sheep.
Being a biblically faithful church in rural Massachusetts was challenging. Yet over two decades, the church grew in numbers, a Sunday School building was added, and the sanctuary was expanded as the 1950 red brick church proved insufficient to hold its people. Challenges to Biblical faithfulness from within slowly decreased even as opposition from without... Continue Reading
But There are Many Interpretations!
We can come to the right understanding of Scripture because God does not leave His people alone in our sin to interpret the Bible.
We prefer to live our own way rather than the way that God wisely and lovingly created us to live. As a result, when we read Scripture, our sinfulness will affect our understanding. We all have beliefs, assumptions, and biases which impact our interpretation of the Bible. As long as we remain in sin against... Continue Reading
Who Is Lord: Christ or Caesar?
When the question is put to us, Caesar or Christ, may we be among those who don’t shrink back.
Caesar or Christ? The truth is that question is always there. It is always before us, before the church in every age of the past. The question is before us in our time today, and it will be in front of the church in the ages to come. Who is Lord? When the Apostles and the... Continue Reading
How the Kingdom Arrives in Matthew’s Gospel
The king took the sins of the people lay them on his shoulders and heaves them up on the cross.
If the Jews were expecting a red carpet to be rolled out for the new Davidic king, then they have not been paying close attention to the story of David’s kingship. David’s journey to his kingship is anything but smooth. The journey of the King is one of deportation and distress. This specific movement, this... Continue Reading
Four Sustaining Graces for Seasons of Depression
Of all the sustaining graces to be had in depression, perhaps the grandest of them all is that our faith is a gift entirely earned, kept, and ultimately perfected by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Asking for prayer from a trusted friend is crucial for those who are suffering from depression. It’s common to feel as though we cannot pray for ourselves beyond the desperate groans of a few little words: Lord, please. Lord, why? Lord, help. Lord, I can’t. Lord, make it stop. Not that more words are required... Continue Reading
I’d Probably Still Cancel Your Short-Term Mission Trip
Having served for a decade as the leader of a missions agency that takes short-term trips, I offer eight brief ways to make them more fruitful.
American churches often send untrained individuals from among the financially privileged on short-term trips as a means of discipleship. In doing so, we swamp long-term workers with people who have flexible schedules and eager hearts, but not a lot of skill. Many missionaries wish they could tell you the same thing, but they’d lose support from... Continue Reading
The Poker Table
He gave me years to serve Him and minister His Word around and from that table.
Today the poker table sits in my study at home. The pad on top has been removed, and the cushions are recovered in a deep blue more fitting to my study. The days of it serving as a gaming table are long over, though occasionally it hosts a game of Euchre or Yahtzee as a... Continue Reading
Is Discouragement Always an Enemy?
Knowing that God has not failed us, and we are still dismayed should be an indication that we have misplaced our trust.
If God’s plan for us was to reach a point of discouragement, doesn’t that mean that God is causing us to sin? The problem is that this way of thinking is too simplistic. The disconnect is in failing to realize that we are already sinful. The fact that the Lord allows us to face situations that... Continue Reading
Songs of the Saints: Comfort in Loss
The love of God is the comfort for those grieving the loss of a loved one.
One Sunday, I finally answered the call. I confessed my sin against God and looked to Jesus Christ as my only hope for salvation. The Lord had called me home as his child. Years before my profession of faith, my grandmother responded to the same call. She had turned from her life of sin and... Continue Reading
Bob and Larry Ride Again
Vischer said fans can expect the new show to include “richer theology” and more New Testament teachings.
Sixteen years had elapsed since Phil Vischer wrote a VeggieTales episode, and he didn’t know how easily he could bring the characters back to life. But Vischer decided to try after the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) approached him last year and asked him to present Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber, and the rest of... Continue Reading
Definite Atonement at Dort and the Unity of the Trinity
Put Down TULIP and Pick Up the Canons of Dort
Today, when we consider the extent of the atonement, we should remember that the Synod of Dort wrote a biblically-saturated and pastorally-useful statement that stands above anything written in the last four centuries. Rather than stressing what Christ did not accomplish in a limited atonement, the second canon of Dort edifies the believer as it... Continue Reading
Sanctification and Union with Christ
It is in Christ where our obedience is found and the Spirit of Christ where that obedience, which God prepared beforehand, is worked out in our lives.
The whole warp and whoof of Paul’s theology (including his theology of sanctification) is grounded in his understanding of who he is (and thus, who we are) in Christ. It is his doctrine of union in Christ that pulsates like a great melodic line running through the entirety of Paul’s thought. He’s a theologian of... Continue Reading
Paul’s Conversion
Jesus met and changed Paul on the Damascus Road.
Facing men who seek to undermine his ministry, Paul describes the events surrounding his conversion to prove the Judaizers are liars for making accusations that Jesus never directly called him to be an apostle. He reminds us that he persecuted the church before meeting Christ. Such an explanation provides a powerful contrast with his new... Continue Reading
Are You Hearing or Understanding?
Could it be that a counter-cultural Christianity in a world of non-stop talking simply looks like a person willing to sit down and listen?
In a culture marked by talking heads, Christians, in particular, need to be marked by a desire to listen and understand. Rather than turning people into arguments that need to be defeated, believers should take time to listen with patience and genuine concern. If you were to turn on the cable news, you would... Continue Reading
The 3 Words That Changed Missions Strategy—and Why We Might Be Wrong
We have to ask ourselves if we’ve been faithful to fulfill the original mandate.
The point is that we need to align the way we talk about the world and its peoples with how Scripture speaks of them. We should define our missionary expectations by the Bible, not going beyond what it has said. And we must ground our endeavors and formulate strategies in ways primarily driven by God’s... Continue Reading
Christian Doctor Fired For Refusing To Use Preferred Gender Pronouns Loses Legal Battle
UK doctor David Mackereth says he was terminated for his refusal to use transgender patients’ preferred pronouns, a decision that has now been upheld by a tribunal.
Tribunal: “Belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others, specifically here, transgender individuals.” UK doctor David Mackereth says he was terminated for his refusal to use transgender patients’ preferred pronouns, a decision... Continue Reading
